FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT SENATE - PAGE 5

HONOLULU - Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz of Hawaii was appointed Wednesday to succeed the late Sen. Daniel Inouye. Gov. Neil Abercrombie announced the appointment after receiving a list of three candidates from the state Democratic Party earlier in the day. The other candidates were U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa and Esther Kiaaina, a deputy director in the state Department of Land and Natural Resources. Inouye died Dec. 17 of respiratory complications at the age of 88. He had sent Abercrombie a letter that day, saying he would like Hanabusa, 61, to succeed him. "Sen.

Track and field legend Carl Lewis finally found a court willing to help him get into the race for the New Jersey state Senate - but there's a chance his run will be fleeting. A three-judge panel of the Philadelphia-based U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that Lewis' name should be included when the ballots are printed for the 8th Legislative District Democratic state Senate primary. While the three-judge panel granted that emergency request, it didn't make a final ruling on whether he's eligible for office.

The Senate can show a modicum of civility this summer by confirming qualified nominees to a trio of important federal agencies. Senators should stop sitting on President Obama's March nomination of Gina McCarthy to head the Environmental Protection Agency. McCarthy joined the EPA in 2009 after many years as a state regulator. Also in limbo is the leadership of the Department of Labor. In March, Obama nominated Thomas Perez, whose background as head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division makes him well qualified to head the department.

At least 169 members of Congress - and possibly many more - will visit Philadelphia on July 16, when the city holds ceremonies honoring the bicentennial of the Constitution, officials on Capitol Hill said yesterday. So far, 157 members of the House of Representatives and 12 members of the Senate, along with their families, plan to attend commemorative events involving the legislators, which will be held at Independence Hall and nearby Congress Hall. Many of their fellow lawmakers are expected to join them, and they have until July 1 to decide whether they will make the trip, according to the Senate and House historians who have been involved in planning the observances.

When he first ran for Congress from Western Pennsylvania in 1990, Rick Santorum campaigned as an outsider, attacking his Democratic opponent as a creature of Washington too far removed from voters to understand their concerns. But over time, Santorum didn't so much fight the Washington establishment as join it. He mastered the complex dance members of Congress had to learn in order to thrive, and he put those skills to work again after he lost his 2006 reelection bid to Democrat Bob Casey Jr. As a member of the Senate from 1995 to 2007, Santorum pushed for hundreds of millions of dollars in earmarks for institutions and businesses at home in Pennsylvania, according to one analysis.

WASHINGTON - Here is how Philadelphia-area senators voted on major issues last week (House not in session): Senate Obama jobs plan. By a vote of 50-50, the Senate on Thursday failed to reach 60 votes for ending GOP blockage of a bill (S 1723) providing $35 billion to avert state and local layoffs of teachers, police, and firefighters. This effectively killed the bill. The bill's spending consists of $30 billion for teacher employment and $5 billion to protect law enforcement and first-responder jobs.

CONCORD, N.H. - Colleagues knew former Sen. Warren B. Rudman for his abrupt manner, but they trusted his expertise. On one matter in particular, though, he wished people would have listened to him: that the U.S. was vulnerable to a major terrorist attack. Rudman left the Senate in the early 1990s but later led a commission that predicted the danger of terrorism on American soil just months before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and called for the creation of a Department of Homeland Security.

HARRISBURG - Proposals to trim the size of the Pennsylvania General Assembly have been floated, and swiftly shot down, for decades. But now there may be some muscle behind that nearly half-century-old idea. Supporters, including Gov. Corbett, House and Senate leaders, and reform-minded backbenchers, say the time is ripe to shrink what, with 253 members, is the largest full-time legislature in the nation. Proponents say a smaller legislature would reduce costs and make government more effective.

SCRANTON - Mayor Chris Doherty said Friday that he would not seek a fourth term. "It's time to do other things with our lives," Doherty said. He will remain in office through 2013. The Democrat briefly ran for governor in 2010 after winning his third mayoral term, then dropped out to run for the state Senate, where he lost in the primary. Doherty first took office as mayor of the city of 76,000 people in January 2002. - AP